Neptune's Needle

c.1,885 miles long; rises in E San Juan co., SW Colo. in the San Juan Mts. at the Continental Divide; flows S past Alamosa, Colo., then through the middle of N.Mex. past Taos, and South Cruz, through Cochita L. reservoir, past Albuquerque, through Elephant and Caballo reservoirs, past Las Cruces, N.Mex., to El Paso, Texas (forms Texas- N.Mex. state boundary c.20 miles above El Paso), then coursing generally SE as the U.S-Mexico border, bet. Texas and Mexican states of Chihuahua, Cauhuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas, making a big bend, eventually emptying into the Gulf of Mexico at Brownsville, Texas, and Matamoros, Mexico. Pueblos were thriving on its banks N of Las Cruces, N.Mex., and the Native Americans were practicing irrigation of the arid country, when Span. explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado arrived (1540). Dams on the Rio Grande are used for irrigation, flood control, and regulation of the river flow.

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Compiler

Peter Richards